The farm is owned and managed by husband and wife duo Sinead Whelan and Paul Leahy, and Sinead’s father Michael also takes an active role in the managing of the farm. His pride and joy are his cattle and he is quite enjoying developing his new foal catching skills every breeding season! Sinead and Paul have a young family that will hopefully become the next generation of Beech Tree Stud. Sinead is a Kildare blow-in from Dublin.
With no previous family involvement in horses, Sinead emersed herself in helping out and eventually working in her local riding school and spent much of her early years within the horse industry working with sport horses and partaking in show jumping and eventing.
After completing her Stage 1 and 2 BHS exams and gaining some valuable work experience in Troytown Equine Hospital she went on to study Equine Science in the University of Limerick and it was in her third year of studies when she participated in a 9 month work experience in Kildangan Stud in Co. Kildare where she met her future husband Paul.
Upon completion of her 4 years in the University of Limerick and obtaining her 2nd class honours degree Sinead spent a yearling prep working and learning from the highly successful Jim Murphy at Redpender Stud in Gowran. Once all theses yearlings were sold Sinead decided to gain more experience overseas and the decision was made then to head to the land down under. Paul hails from the town of Monasterevin which is only a stones throw away from where his career as an apprentice jockey began at the young age of 16.
Paul worked and rode for Seamus Fahey and during this time he had 49 of rides on the track. After a couple of very valuable years working for the Faheys’ Paul decided to gain some of experience on the stud side of the industry and he secured a position as a stud groom in Kildangan Stud where he worked with both the stallions and the mares and foals.
After 18 months in Kildangan the management team here helped him secure a VISA and a stud hand position in Pin Oak Stud in Kentucky where he spend gained great experience over the next 12 months working in the yearling and breaking barn and also working with some of their stallions. Upon his return to Ireland he regained his job at Kildangan but this time as a yard foreperson.
Sinead and Paul began their journey in Australia in Eliza Park – initially travelling to all the major yearling sales at all the major sales and then back to the main farm to work in the breaking yard and prep foals for the foal sales. They then went on to work for Godolphin again at their brand new purpose built training facility just outside Sydney – Osborne Park. Godolphin in the Hunter Valley kept them in Australia for a further 4 years.
Upon their return to the Emerald Isle they secured work at Brendan Holland’s Grove Stud working with his highly successful breeze up 2 year olds and yearlings. In 2017, with the support of Sinead’s father, the farmlands at Mullaboden were secured and over the next few years Beech Tree Stud was born.
We have been gradually building our own strong band of broodmares and are excited to grow our business, offering a variety of services for clients. Our motto at Beech Tree is simple for all of our clients – Your horse is our horse!
